McIlroy off the boil in Charlotte as Clarke hits the front in Alabama
CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA - MAY 06: Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland plays a shot on the tenth hole during the first round of the 2021 Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Club on May 06, 2021 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
Rory McIlroy showed he's still a long way from his best when he had to work hard to grind out a one-over 72 in the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow.
While he's seen Pete Cowen only intermittently since they started working together a month ago, the Holywood star (32) struggled with a two-way miss from the tee, hitting just four fairways at a venue where he’s won twice and racked up another five top-10s in just nine starts.
He turned in one-under but never looked comfortable and bogeyed the 11th and three-putted the 17th to end the day tied for 72nd, eight shots behind veteran Phil Mickelson (50), who made eight birdies in a seven-under 64 to lead by two strokes from Keegan Bradley and Korea's Kyoung-Hoon Lee.
Mickelson missed just two fairways, eschewing the driver for a two-wood.
“It's just kind of a mini driver head that I use as a strong 3-wood, and out here, because the fairways are so firm, if I hit it low enough, I'm able to get a lot of chase out of it and I don't feel like I'm sacrificing any distance,” he said. “So that allows me to kind of keep my misses a lot tighter. Today I hit it very successfully, I hit a lot of good shots with it.
“My misses that I did miss weren't as far offline and I was able to salvage pars. But that club has allowed me to kind of get it in play and then let my irons take over. My irons has always been the strength of my game, I just haven't been able to use them enough. But that club's working really well around here.”
Shane Lowry was two-under with three to play after he stiffed his tee shot at the 255-yard sixth but he bogeyed the seventh and eighth en route to a level par 71 that left him tied for 53rd with West Waterford's Seamus Power.
After making the field by winning the Monday qualifier, Power bogeyed the 12th but birdied the 13th, 14th and 15th to turn in two-under-par but then bogeyed the fifth, seventh and eighth to slip to one-over before making a 13 footer for a birdie at the ninth to shoot level par.
Keith Mitchell, Peter Malnati, Tommy Fleetwood, Luke List, Gary Woodland and Kyle Stanley were tied for fourth on four-under after 67s with Justin Thomas and Viktor Hovland tied 18th on two-under after 69s.
Bryson DeChambeau shot 70 but Jon Rahm struggled to a five-over 76.
Meanwhile, Darren Clarke (52) has his eye on his first senior Major after he opened with a six-under 66 to lead the Regions Tradition by a shot from Jerry Kelly and Canada's Stephen Ames at Greystone in Alabama.
"Majors are majors. It doesn't make any difference which tour they're on," said Clarke, who is seeking his third win on the PGA Tour Champions in six starts.
"You want to play well. You ask Tiger Woods, you ask Rory McIlroy, you ask Dustin, you ask Mr Nicklaus, you ask anybody, majors are what they all want, and it's the same out here. We all want them, too.”
As for his round, which saw him turn in five-under 31 on the back nine before following further birdies at the par-three second and seventh with a bogey five at the eighth, he said: “I hit some good shots. Ball-striking wasn't quite where I wanted it all day, but hit some really good shots. Had a couple of good looks at eagle on the par 5s, didn't make them. All in all, 6 under par is a pretty decent start.”
